BMW 2015 Annual Report Download - page 41

41 COMBINED MANAGEMENT REPORT
Ideal balance between quality, innovation, flexibility
and costs
The underlying objective of the BMW Group’s pur-
chasing,
quality assurance and component production
functions is to achieve the ideal balance between
quality, innovation, flexible supply structures and com-
petitive costs. At all levels – production materials, raw
materials, services and capital goods – arrangements
are in place to ensure that the BMW Group is able to
react flexibly to fluctuations in demand, especially
when operating within a volatile market environment.
Increasing pace of globalisation
Increased globalisation, the interconnected nature of
supplier markets and the widespread expansion of
BMW Group sales and production operations around
the world mean that the distribution of purchase
volumes
is changing continuously. In the coming years,
the NAFTA region in particular will be the focus of
growth, given the increasing volume of production
planned for the Spartanburg plant in the USA. The
addition of the BMW Group’s new plant in San Luis
Potosí, Mexico, which is scheduled to open in 2019,
will reinforce this shift. The BMW Group remains com-
mitted to achieving globally balanced growth in terms
of sales, production and purchase volumes. This strategy
also makes an important contribution to natural cur-
rency hedging.
Investments safeguard productivity and
technology leadership
The Purchasing and Supplier Network is also responsi-
ble
for component production throughout the BMW
PURCHASING AND SUPPLIER NETWORKPURCHASING AND SUPPLIER NETWORK
Group. Investing in state-of-the-art manufacturing facili-
ties and efficient structures increases the
competitive-
ness of in-house component production. During the
finan cial year under report, the cornerstone was laid for
a new lightweight design centre at the BMW Group’s
component production plant in Landshut. When com-
pleted,
the centre will house facilities for some 160 engi-
neers, who will research innovative materials, composite
construction concepts and manufacturing processes
for future vehicle generations.
Regional mix of BMW Group purchase volumes 2015
in %, basis: production material
Germany 42.6 Rest of Western Europe 15.8
Eastern Europe 19.7 Asia / Australia 4.6
NAFTA 15.9 Africa 1.4
Germany
NAFTA
Eastern Europe
Rest of
Western Europe
Asia / Australia
Africa